


Fridays Alone Aren't So Bad

by leyline



Series: shorts on tumblr [4]
Category: Proxy Series - Alex London
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Clubbing, M/M, Youtuber!Syd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-17
Updated: 2015-04-17
Packaged: 2018-03-23 10:57:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3765568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leyline/pseuds/leyline
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Syd and Knox start talking on youtube one unfortunate (or is it? Knox would later argue) Friday night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fridays Alone Aren't So Bad

**Author's Note:**

> noahperron yelled at me about youtuber!Syd on an ask and I couldn't help myself. SHE EVEN HAD A GIF OF YOUTUBER!SYD what was I supposed to do??!

Knox is grounded on a Friday night. Grounded. On. A. Friday. _At night._ He’s never been grounded a day in his life since his mother died, because it’s not like his dad ever gave a shit, which only infuriates him more when, well, when he actually does. _  
_

Like suddenly he cares enough to lock him in his room (yeah, lock him, password codes that only he knows style) and absolutely deprive him of what was definitely brewing to be a fabulous hangover. 

As if it was the first time he took one of his dad’s expensive cars for a spin without asking. The fact that that spin included doing donuts on that asshole Finch’s front yard is seriously so irrelevant when his dad could, and did, get rid of the problem with just a call to one of his many lawyers.

Seriously. He’s a teenager. Let him live.

Either way it’s Friday and his friends are out partying, getting wasted and Knox is home. Which is lame and he’s bored and he doesn’t want to think about them having fun without him.

So he does what every healthy sixteen year old locked up in his room without even his phone while his best friends are going all crazy in a strobe light filled club ( _and fog machined too, ugh._ Knox loves the fog machines. They make him look even more mysterious and the ladies love it. Guys do too, he noticed, because groping someone’s dick is easier when the fog settles apparently).

He takes his oh-so-geniusly altered glassed from where he hid them under a sliding tile on his room and lies back down on his bed to browse through youtube. 

He won’t listen to music, because he favors electronic dance music and that will just depress him right now. He likes being happy. Next obvious stop is random, funny videos.

He starts normally, as one who finds videos of lizards shooting blood out of their eyes usually does, and clicks on a video that’s titled King Cobra Fights Polar Bear. 

You know, the usual stuff. 

Never mind that it’s probably fake because oh, he doesn’t know, king cobras and polar bears don’t even coexist. But whatever, he’s bored. That’s the stuff he’s reduced to. Ten seconds into the video he gets bored because watching a man in a polar bear suit drunkenly fight a real king cobra is not as amusing as it sounds at first.

Go figure. 

He must really have wanted to go clubbing tonight, if not even that can get him excited. 

He searches the sidebar for more attractive titles (so sue him, he’s a shallow guy) and stops at one whose title taunts him. _Roommates Are Glitched_. The poster’s username is UpMyCarton, which he doesn’t really get but it sounds kind of gay. Then again, everything sounds gay to a sixteen year old boy.

Still. Glitched. That’s the word he and his friends made up, after many a drinks in their favorite club, after being chastised by people everywhere for cussing out loud (they’re all no fun, really, what’s wrong with a little emphasis?), one night in Arcadia and five shots of absinthe was all it took for a new creative way of expressing their strong feelings being born.

So yeah, Knox and his friends are trendsetters, and he’s kinda upset that he hasn’t seen the word before on the internet yet. Well, before now.

So he clicks the video. Because he’s kind of a narcissist. Just kind of. 

The video starts with this a intro of a cat falling into a swamp and Knox snorts because what was this person even on when they made this? Still, it keeps him interested for the six seconds it last and then the video opens up to a guy.

He’s a black guy, probably around Knox’s age and he’s smiling at something off camera before turning towards him and start talking. He talks about his roommate, tells the camera how obnoxious he is, to which the roommate screams back an insult, that actually seems more fond than anything. All throughout the video

Knox actually missed what the guy was saying at first because of the way he was looking at his eyes, for. Reasons? So he goes back on the video and listens to the guy introduce himself as Syd.

He tells himself he’s getting bored with it soon enough, but the truth is, he’s four and a half minutes in and the video is just five minutes and Knox kind of secretly wishes it was ten because Syd is…Syd is slightly interesting.

He ends up watching it twice, just for the way Syd’s hands slide when he talks, before he clicks the UpMyCarton link and is taken to Syd’s video page. 

He watches all of his videos.

At the end of the third video, _Say Hello To Proxy_ (in which Syd introduces his and his roommate’s new pet), he learns Syd is an actual Vlogger and wonders how he has never even heard of him.

Then at the beginning of the fourth, _Inside Syd: Chapter Eleven_ , Syd’s roommate, that has appeared in every single video and Knox is starting to suspect is more than a roommate at this point because Syd’s videos are filled with queer innuendo (he looks at the video’s title and yeah, case in point), and the guy, who Knox recognized as Egan, the kid he sees much of at Arcadia, laughs at something Syd said and pushes him while saying something like swampcat, which appears to be his nickname for him and makes Syd laugh and sort of explains the opening. 

After a few hours he’s seen all of Syd’s videos at least once. And he’s not bored anymore. 

He doesn’t really want to go back to moping on his bed and the urge to say something (sarcastic, usually) in any situation has always been Knox’s downfall. 

He goes back to that first video and at his prompt, a keyboard appears on the far right side of the projection his glasses are sending to his brain. He types on the comment box.

_You think your roommate stealing your food from the fridge is glitched? Try having your multiple friends ordering pizza to your house.  
_

He doesn’t have any hopes, after all, it’s Friday. Syd’s probably out there living his life, because he seems like a behaved kid and he’s friends with Egan, who is said to go to Arcadia more than Knox, but then a small window appears on the bottom left side of his vision. A blue window with white letters that dings with a notification sound. He goes back to the video and sees the guy’s response.

_I fail to see the problem._

Knox smiles because that’s exactly what he wanted. He knows how to keep someone waiting for the big blam. _  
_

__They ate it all and left and I didn’t eat any._ And they don’t even live with me._

A few more minutes while Knox browses through yahoo answers just for something to do and then: _  
_

_Oh my god. I’m so sorry, dude. You win the glitched friends roulette. This time._

Knox smiles and sits up on the bed, starting up another one of Syd’s videos again.

By the end of the night, he’s commented on all of them and Syd’s replied on all of his comments. Multiple times.

* * *

It’s three weeks later when Cheyenne side-eyes him as they’re sipping their expensive drinks in some coffee shop Knox has never bothered to learn the name of.

“What’s up with you?”

He raises his eyes to her. “Basically I’m young and beautiful. What’s up with you?”

She rolls her eyes at him. “You’ve been texting somebody nonstop these days.“ Knox quickly sets his phone on the table between them when she says so but she just rolls her eyes again. 

So, he’s not smooth. At least not when he’s not flirting somebody into something.

“I’m not– It’s not texting. It’s chatting. We’re on a chat.”

Cheyenne swipes a hand through her shaved head before flipping him the bird. “Whatever, glitch-face.” Knox pretends to gasp at the insult “The fact remains that you’ve been blabbing away with someone for days and you even bought a new lux phone for it–”

“I did not! My old one–”

“Fell in the toilet after you were done taking a dump, yeah, we’ve all used that excuse before. The thing is, now you got me intrigued, and I hate being intrigued. So you’re gonna tell me. What’s up?”

Here’s the deal, Knox isn’t afraid of anybody. He doesn’t let anyone intimidate him into anything because he’s the one with the looks, he’s the one with the money and he’s the one with the power.

So, there’s that.

And then there’s Cheyenne.

So Knox tells her everything. He tells her how three days after he found Syd (who he now knows goes by Sydney Carton and now can laugh at his youtube username) on the internet, they traded numbers via private messages and have been texti– shit, _chatting_ since.

He tells her they’ve talked about anything and everything, from serious to silly, because talking to Syd is surprisingly easier than anything he’s ever done while being simply honest. 

He even tells her how he’s thinking of casually mentioning to Syd he’s going to be at Arcadia the day after tomorrow and that Syd should swing by too. You know, just a mention, nothing more. It’s not like he’s actively asking Syd to come. He knows Syd’s best friend likes the place so he’s just mentioning. It’s casual.

Cheyenne chokes on her drink and laughs at him all the way until he accompanies her to Simi’s.

Then Simi’s laughing at him too. 

Then later, Nine.

Syd is right. Knox has won the glitched friends roulette. 

* * *

Knox tries to move his hips, tries to forget himself in the beat. He tries to feel the beat blasting from the huge speakers as his own heartbeat and just forget everything like he always does when in Arcadia. That’s why it’s so awesome. No one looks at you strangely because everyone is there for just that, for forgetting. Everyone wants to forget something. Knox wants to forget the slight weight in his jeans’ pocket that almost seems to be pulsing.

It’s not like Syd said he would come and even if he did it might just be because he remembered clubs actually existed and he liked going out and not necessarily to see Knox. It’s not like they’d exchanged a lot of selfies and could recognize each other on sight at any time.

It’s not like they agreed to meet. It’s not like Knox told Syd to shoot him a text if he actually came because that would have been so clingy and Knox doesn’t do clingy. He just does his own thing and lets everybody do theirs. So he isn’t…It doesn’t– He’s not bothered at all. No. 

He’s just dancing. He’s just moving. He’s just feeling…Feeling…

A hand on his shoulder.

He turns around and there’s… 

Simi.

His shoulders don’t sag no matter what anyone watching might say.

“What?” He mouths at his friend, not even bothering to try and make himself heard because they’re too close to the stage (usually meant for a band but today filled with dancing people) anyways.

“I just thought you might want to buy me a drink.” His friend mouths back, his words clear as day to Knox because after a while stuck in overflowing clubs you usually develop skills like these.

Knox shakes his head.

“You’re rich too,” He swipes a hand through his hair and winks. He doesn’t hear but sees Simi snort at that “and I’m better looking. You should be begging to buy _me_ a drink.”

Simi smirks at him and for a moment Knox is so thrown off that he stops dancing and turns fully to his friend. 

“Trust me, glitch-head. You want. To buy me. A drink.” Simi waves him over and starts walking away towards the counters.

Knox resists approximately two seconds before following his friend. So mystery kind of works on him too, okay. He just can’t back away from a challenge.

It is hard to push through the sea of bodies, but nothing he had never done before, so following Simi, who is surprisingly fluid amidst the lava of people, he reaches the counters where drinks are being bought.

Simi leans against it and this time when his friend talks, Knox actually hears the words, because the counters are far enough from the speakers so he can do so, a clever strategy, he thinks not for the first time, considering all the magic tends to start here, where people buy each other drinks and talk for other purposes than simply dancing. 

“You might want to look about…Three stools to your left.”

Knox looks. Simi sighs.

“Your other left, idiot.”

He huffs but does it just the same. He usually doesn’t let anyone order him around like this but he is curious. 

And then he sees it.

Or rather _him_. He sees him. 

It’s Egan first and then right beside the guy, sitting on the stool right next to him there is Syd. Unmistakeably Syd, with his dark skin and his close cropped hair and full lips and just hands. Syd. Knox hears Simi laugh so loud the bartender looks over at them with a quizzical brow.

He punches his friend in the arm.

“Wrap it.”

“You wrap it.” Simi says, eyebrows waggling and everything “Before you miss your chance. Oh and, for this, you do owe me a drink. Next time, lover boy.”

Simi flicks him in the nose and then is gone, disappearing into the crow like a freaking apparition. No sense of style, really. That was cliché as fuck.

Knox gulps and turns back to glance where Syd and Egan are talking. Syd looks even more…Interesting in person. He doesn’t smile much. Knox kind of wants to fix that.

He could do that. Knox could do anything he set his mind to, it’s just he didn’t usually set his mind for much other than clubbing and hacking and driving his father nuts. But now he has set his mind on Syd.

So he rolls his shoulders and puts on his best smile.

Syd only looks up when he was right in front of him, eyebrows up and eyes wide.

“Hi.” Knox says, hand reaching up to catch a few strands of his hair at the back of his head.

“Piss off, Knox. Syd isn’t a novelty.” Egan immediately cuts him off, coming to stand up from his stool and next to his friend.

Knox is speechless for a moment, a rarity. “I– What?”

Egan snorts at him. “What, you think you’re the first guy tonight I’ve had to chase off because he wanted to experiment with a gay guy? Just leave Syd alone, you’re not his type anyways.”

Somehow Knox doubts that, and it isn’t only because Syd is still staring wide eyed at Knox’s…Well, everything really. It kind of makes him squirm under his gaze a little.

The confirmation that Syd is in fact gay also makes him want to squirm for all kinds of reasons but he refrained. They hadn’t really explicitly talked about their sexualities but Knox had seen Syd’s videos and well, sometimes he hoped– He means, wondered if his suspicions were correct. And now he knew. Did Syd ever wonder back at Knox’s bisexuality? He wasn’t exactly shy about it. Knox wasn’t shy about anything, no matter how new a discovery it was.

He helds his hands up in a peace offering because he never knew Egan to be this aggressive. It is kind of endearing but really a hindrance right now because Syd is right there in his grasp and Egan is just not letting him…Anything.

“Look, I’m not–“ He starts, but Syd beat him to it.

“This is Foxy, Egan. Foxyknoxy? The guy I have been, huh, chatting with.”

Knox can’t help but smile at that.

“You mean this is the internet incognito who you have been crushing on for weeks and couldn’t even openly discuss with your best friend?” Egan wrinkles his nose as he looks Knox in the eye and then shrugs “I’ll never understand your taste.”

“I don’t– You’re already tweaked, man.” Syd shakes his head but Knox notices the way he can’t quite meet his eyes.

It only makes his smile widen more. Syd has been crushing on him. That’s just… A huge confidence booster right there. Not like he needs it much, but still.

Egan slaps a hand on his chest suddenly “If you fuck with him, I will not even worry to hide your body. I’m totally cool with public assassination.”

Then he leaves Knox and Syd there, the first feeling his mouth a little dry. 

“So…” He smirks, rolling the vowel a little on his tongue “You’ve got a crush on me, huh?”

When Syd looks back at him it’s with a little challenge in his eye and Knox notices how he’s started to drift closer to Syd unconsciously, their mouths so close now that when Syd speaks Knox can feel his breath fanning his own lips.

“So what if I do?” 

And well, as Knox said, he never backs away from a challenge.


End file.
